text:
Now that the World Health Organization has officially declared COVID-19 a true pandemic, most everyone is beginning to pay attention to the spreading disease — including marijuana users. The marijuana industry was already limping along at the beginning of this year, as many weed businesses continue to struggle to find funding and sufficient support from their communities. How is this new global threat affecting sales, and do either weed users or weed sellers have anything to fear?
Marijuana is a drug for all occasions, whether a user wants to spend time alone or relax with company. Yet, as cannabis becomes legal in more parts of the country, weed enthusiasts have become accustomed to gathering in rather large groups to celebrate their favorite plant. Unfortunately, due to physical distancing mandates — including a federal guideline that strongly discourages gatherings of more than 10 people — many of these marijuana events have been postponed if not outright cancelled. While some of these events were small, local affairs, some are large and could affect the industry as a whole. For example:
- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo cancelled his tour of states with legalized recreational weed. The tour was to inform Cuomo about extant marijuana regulation to better prepare him and his state for recreational legalization in 2020 — but because he must postpone his trip, it is likely that there will be delays in ratifying recreational weed legislation and finalizing reforms to medicinal marijuana laws.
- The Cannabis Cup, which determines the best strains and growers of the year, has been postponed indefinitely. Hosted by High Times, one of the oldest and best respected marijuana publications, the Cannabis Cup is revered for its ability to skyrocket the sales of certain strains and catapult growers from their garage into massive greenhouse operations. As yet, there isn’t any news about when (or if) the Cannabis Cup will take place this year.
- Various music and culture events, like SXSW and Coachella, have been cancelled or postponed. Though neither SXSW or Coachella are directly related to weed, they are events where the weed industry benefits. The suspension of these events could delay or eliminate massive infusions of cash to the marijuana industry.
By law, marijuana cannot be imported or transported over state lines, which means that Oregon marijuanaenthusiasts enjoy delectably local bud, while users in Nevada, Vermont, Alaska and elsewhere utilize cannabis grown within their state borders. However, many of the other elements of cannabis sales are manufactured out of state — in fact, many of them are produced in China, the epicenter of the pandemic.
China moved quickly to contain COVID-19, quarantining cities in Hubei province and shutting down public activities that might spread the virus — but it didn’t move quickly enough. As of this writing, there are roughly 90,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, and more than 3,000 Chinese have died from the disease. The country is suffering severe shutdowns across its massive territory, which means that the manufacturing processes the world depends on are ground to a halt.
Within marijuana, this most directly impacts the manufacture of vape pen hardware, which is produced almost exclusively in China. As a result, some dispensaries and vape shops have suffered a shortage of goods, an inability to deliver vape tools to customers who demand them. Fortunately, China’s manufacturing seems to be powering back up rather rapidly, so vape pens and related paraphernalia might once again be available relatively soon.
Finally, the factor most members of the marijuana industry are eager to hear about: the sales figures for cannabis during the pandemic. Already, cannabis sales had been dropping for about a year; despite the fast and furious legalization of recreational marijuana around the country and high valuations of various pot stocks, retail weed sales have long been steadily declining to nearly everyone’s dismay. Experts have dug up various reasons for this unexpected consumer behavior, from indecorously high taxes to a booming black market to a loss of novelty.
The pandemic isn’t exactly helping matters, but it isn’t hurting, either. Many cities are restricting hours of operation, and because few states permit online marijuana orders or home deliveries, consumers have less time during the day to stock up on marijuana. Plus, it is increasingly clear that COVID-19 is worse for those with less-than-hale respiratory systems, so many would-be smokers might be avoiding inhaling bud to keep themselves out of harm’s way. On the other hand, the stress and fear associated with the pandemic are driving many people to self-medicate with relaxing substances, especially weed, and some states, like Oregon and California, have reported spikes in cannabis commerce. Some dispensaries around the country have lines outside their shops and around the block, much like grocery stores.
The future isn’t clear, but one thing is for certain: recreational marijuana isn’t going anywhere. Though this pandemic has landed some hits to the cannabis industry, eventually the threat of COVID-19 will subside and marijuana operations will resume as normal.


text:
The monthly unique visitors of Douban, an interest-based social network, hiked 100% from a year earlier to more than 200 million for six consecutive months from April to September this year, the company announced today.
As of September 2013, Douban covers reviews on 16.70 million books, 320 million movies, 1.06 million songs, 27,000 indie musicians, and 38,000 interest groups. It has registered over 75 million users, mainly from first- and second-tier cities, with a daily average PV of 210 million.
Douban grabbed 80 million yuan ($13 million) of revenue in 2012, mainly from commissions from e-commerce transactions, brand campaigns, and e-book sales.
Douban released Dongxi, a social shopping channel directing users to ecommerce retailers, in this September. Users also can buy movie tickets in more than 500 cinemas countrywide at the Douban page of a movie. Douban takes sales cuts from both of the services.
CPM-based targeted display ad is another major revenue source of the company. Douban now cooperates with two hundred well-known brands, offering advertising solutions based on user interests and content.
More than 5,000 books are available on Douban Read, an e-book store selling digital books and magazines from conventional publishers, third-party online publishers and the like.
Leave a comment

domain: news


text:
Sima Vaziry Jewellery and hat designer Katherine Elizabeth Millinery have partnered to open their first retail store.
Located in the OXO Tower Wharf on London’s South Bank, it is hoped the shop and studio will enable the designers to capitalise on the busy entertainment and commercial district of central London.
The shop is expected to open on Friday 24 February and the “attractive high end items on display will appeal to a wide audience who appreciate exquisite design and craftsmanship,” according to a statement from Sima Vaziry.
Vaziry creates handmade designer jewellery and has previously created collections for the British Museum, as well as appearing in segments on Sky TV and the BBC.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth has showcased her collection of fashion-led hats at upmarket department store Fortnum and Mason.


text:
You are on the global GfK website. Visit our local website for more offerings and information in your country.
The increased adoption of smart and voice-activated devices, coupled with fast broadband,..
Over the past decade, consumer health trends have been influenced by advancements in..
The shift to virtual shopping by global consumers has accelerated during the pandemic,..


text:
It seems these days carriers are merging to compete with one another and so news of AT&T buying Alltel comes as no surprise since the carrier, before purchasing T-Mobile had been struggling with spectrum and keeping up with speeds. With T-Mobile and Metro PCS merging, AT&T does not want to be left out specially since T-Mobile is in a great position to offer non-contract customers great phones and a good network to back that up. Alltel’s parent company, Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc (ATNI), is also a cell provider in Guyana, Bermuda, and other Caribbean nations under different brand names. AT&T is only buying the domestic wireless portion, which operates under the Alltel brand, but is technically known as the Allied Wireless Communications Corporation.
All tell had this to say:
“We are pleased that AT&T recognizes the value of our US wireless retail operations and is acquiring these assets,” said Michael T. Prior, Alltel’s chief executive officer, in a statement. “Alltel’s customers will benefit from access to a nationwide 4G network, a larger device selection, additional retail locations and a broader range of product offerings.
Interestingly enough AT&T in my opinion seems to be in desparate mode, because well Alltel runs on a CDMA network vs AT&T is a GSM network, which makes me wonder if AT&T will keep Alltel as a separate entity or will they somehow merge the networks together.


text:
TrueMoney partners with Thunes to activate global remittances
Thailand-based fintech firm TrueMoney has signed a partnership with cross-border payments firm Thunes to expand its remittance network.
The deal enables TrueMoney users to receive money from “anywhere in the world” through Thunes’ partner network.
Thunes claims to operate with 60 currencies across more than 100 countries.
Myanmar will be the first country to benefit from this partnership. Thunes partners in the country will gain access to TrueMoney’s agent network across Southeast Asia.
This means a Burmese living in the US could send money to any TrueMoney cash location in Myanmar. The funds are “instantly” converted from US dollars to Myanmar kyats.
Before signing the Thunes deal, TrueMoney says its cross-border service was only available in selected markets through its mobile wallet.
“Our partnership with Thunes allows us to expand our global reach and connect our users to customers of Thunes’ partners globally,” says Dale Kim, managing director of TrueMoney parent Ascend Money.
“This reinforces our mission to provide innovative financial services to all, leading them to better lives.”
Founded in 2016, TrueMoney claims to have served more than five million customers and opened 20,000 cash pick-up locations.
Peter De Caluwe, Thunes CEO, says the deal aligned with his firm’s objective of providing new payment options for partners.
He adds that Thunes streamlines the process of cross-border money transfer, resulting in “greater speed and operational efficiencies for our partners.”
Thunes signed a partnership with Commercial Bank of Dubai in June to provide the latter with real-time payments to outside the United Arab Emirates.


text:
Mike Ryan is our kind of insane. Not only did the man fling his Freightliner race truck up the winding side of Mount Washington earlier this year, but the professional stunt and race driver has also joined forces with drifting legend Sam Hubinette for a little exhibition show during round six of the Formula Drift Championship.
ESPN recently announced the addition of SuperRally to the banquet of driving discipline at the X Games, and now it's been revealed that champion drifter Sam Hubinette will be one of the SuperRally entrants. He'll be behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution built by Sam Hubinette Racing stablemate Andrew Comrie-Picard, who's already got four years of experience participating in the X Games. Hubinette's no tyro, though – he got his first racing license at the age of 16 in Sweden, ru
Hubinette's Charger an Comrie-Picard's Viper during drift testing – Click above to watch video after the jump
2009 Smart ForTwo Cabriolet – Click above for high-res image gallery
Formula Drift Mopar Dodge Viper - Click above for a high-res gallery
Call it the Lamborgawdy LP300ZX. This "tuned" Nissan was spotted at China's version of SEMA, the Beijing Automobile Accessories and Decorations Show. It's from a firm called MPS, which stands for Max Power Sports. Apparently, they bumped the stock 300 hp engine to a more Lambo-esque 500 poinies, so at least the "Power" part seems somewhat credible, but the real draw is that Lamborghini Murcielago body kit. It apparently takes a lot of extra bodywork to create a faux mid-engine look. Note the "Dr
Click above for high-res gallery of the new Mopar Drift Dodge Challenger
When you're winging a vehicle as expensive and powerful as a purpose-built Dodge Viper drift car, being fearful will only lead to a bad ending. Sam Hubinette doesn't have any such compunctions while sliding sideways at 90 miles per hour. Should he inadvertently hit the wall, whoops. Fretting over potential contact will likely only make it inevitable. The hairy-chested car guys over at 0-60 were hanging out at the third round of Formula Drift competition in Englishtown, NJ, and caught up with the
When Jaguar's "Gorgeous" campaign TV ads came out a few years back with the XK, some ad critics questioned the none-too-subtle message they contained: older, distinguished gentleman gets to frolic with beautiful young women when he drives this car. Whether or not that's the case -- concerning the ad or in real life -- a new Lamborghini commercial with Sam Hubinette takes that same riff and, being Lamborghini, pushes it even further.
He usually spends his time behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger, but recently Samuel Hübinette made an exchange for something with a lower roofline. Lamborghini asked him to take a seat in a 2009 Gallardo for the filming of a European-market commercial set on the streets of Los Angeles and Palm Springs. Blowing tire smoke for the camera is nothing new to Sam since his blue Mopar-mobile has been featured in many a BF Goodrich tire commercial. Unlike the Charger though, the Gallardo isn't quit


text:
Microsoft recently announced plans to eventually stop the activation of Silverlight, Shockwave, and Flash content in Office 365. This is not just the developers disabling bugs with an option to click a link or button to look at content. Within a few months’ time, Flash will be gone from Office 365 for good.
If you think you haven’t maximized all that Windows 10 has to offer, you’re probably right. Windows 10’s recent updates include a few small but useful enhancements that’ll make your life easier. Aside from the Start Menu’s return or the Cortana display enhancements, there’s more to Microsoft’s snazzy operating system that you probably haven’t used.
Got a new laptop? Windows 10 includes some wonderful features along with a revamped interface for Microsoft’s operating system. No matter how experienced you are with Windows, you still may need help getting used to this, so let’s get you started.
#1 Check for updates
Your new laptop should check for updates automatically, but you can also check manually.
Ransomware brings a world of trouble to any business. From operational disruption and revenue loss to total shutdown, no company is spared. That is why it’s wise to regularly back up your business data in multiple locations, including the cloud. Which is where Windows 10’s backup and restore tools come in handy.
The Universal Windows Platform (UWP) version of OneNote will now be the only app available for Windows 10, as Office 365 and Microsoft Office 2019 will do away with the 32-bit desktop app.
Microsoft’s OneNote desktop application is nearing the end of its journey, as the software giant will stop developing the product line past the 2016 edition.
Having to use passwords constantly can be a pain (and a high security risk) to many of us. Luckily, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox have recently agreed to support biometrics for authentication to make our social media, email, and shopping account logins easier and more secure.
It’s becoming more and more difficult to ensure privacy and security in the applications we use today. Microsoft is well aware of the anxiety that Office 365 users face, which is why they recently introduced these new security capabilities in Outlook, OneDrive, and its apps.
The Spring Creators Update for Windows 10 will begin rolling out soon, and unlike its predecessors, this one can be installed in under half an hour. It also comes with some noteworthy new features. Let’s take a tour of the most useful additions for small businesses.
Microsoft’s Windows Server operating systems are complicated enough to warrant their own certification program. However, small businesses can take full advantage of the features included in the latest version of this software by moving to an outsourced IT support model.
Are you using Microsoft Teams to streamline communication between your employees? If you are, get ready to enjoy a more convenient workplace chat platform. Microsoft has recently announced six new features for Teams.
One new feature that Microsoft will bring to Teams is Cortana, Microsoft’s virtual assistant.


text:
Amazon’s healthcare marketplace is a long-term play, but just the disruption healthcare needs
On January 22, Amazon opened Amazon Go, its cashier-less convenience store concept, to the public. Pictures of the store show a small, 7-Eleven-like space filled with grab-and-go items, meal kits, and even alcohol. Almost as soon as news of its opening spread, speculation of Amazon’s plans for the technology behind Amazon Go spread as well. Will they license the technology to others? (eh, maybe) Bring it to Whole Foods? (eventually) Build Amazon Go stores across the United States? (yep).
Over the past couple years, Amazon has shown a strong desire to create a more robust physical presence. Providing Amazon Hubs in large apartment complexes, placing Amazon Lockers everywhere, buying Whole Foods (and placing Amazon Lockers in them), building Amazon pickup stores and bookstores — it all seemed part of some grand plan to dominate physical retail the way the giant has come to dominate ecommerce.
The opening of Amazon Go to the public, in addition to Amazon’s announcement that it plans to create an independent healthcare company along with fellow corporate giants Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, begins to illustrate a unifying theory motivating Amazon’s varying investments in physical assets. First, it’s another concerted move by Amazon to bring its digital network into the physical world, meeting the customer where he/she is. Next, it’s an effort to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of its consumers.
First, Amazon has repeatedly demonstrated it isn’t afraid to make investments in the sometimes messy physical world. Building data centers and distribution centers, buying grocery stores, trucks and planes — these moves have demonstrated that Amazon has a desire to build a completely integrated digital and physical platform. Whether in ecommerce and logistics or in cloud computing, Amazon brings together all the necessary components — digital and physical — for customers to easily come onto their platform and begin buying, developing, or selling (ecommerce, AWS, and logistics, respectively).
Next, Amazon is notoriously a glutton for productivity. There are three ways to improve productivity: (1) shift work to lower skilled labor, (2) replace labor with technology, or (3) shift work to customers. In its logistics chain, Amazon has obviously pursued the first two: it notoriously has legions of relatively low-wage package pickers in distribution centers that work alongside robots (from Amazon’s purchase of Kiva Systems in 2012). Amazon Go obviously achieves the second goal, replacing the marginal cost of convenience store labor with the high fixed costs associated with building out the software, cameras and everything else that went into the store. But, as Amazon Go stores spread across the country, they will also pursue the third method of improving productivity, shifting work to consumers.
“The healthcare system is complex, and we enter into this challenge open-eyed about the degree of difficulty.” –Jeff Bezos, CEO of Everything
Amazon Go will shift logistics work from Amazon to customers in a noticeable way. From two-day Prime shipping to same-day or two hour Prime Now shipping (to those who don’t have Prime, but come on, who doesn’t have Prime?), customers on Amazon have a variety of delivery options. Our need-it-now culture drives widespread inefficiency in the backend logistics serving up quickly delivered La Croix, gadgets or whatever else (not to mention the potential environmental impact of all this inefficiency). Amazon Go solves for this problem by giving consumers the option to walk down the street and quickly pick up an item, instead of ordering it on Amazon. In the long term, Amazon Go stores can take the strain off serving millions of logistics network endpoints, moving consumers to simply pick up items from down the street. This achieves the productivity goal of shifting work to customers, without customers even realizing it: the Amazon Go experience is so effortless and enjoyable, who wouldn’t want to pick up a meal kit and some chapstick from it? Whole Foods, Lockers, Pickup and Go stores — while on their face they seem to increase the number of nodes in Amazon’s logistics network, they actually decrease the nodes served, as customers shift to buying or picking up down the street instead of in their mailbox.
This brings us to the Amazon/Berkshire/JPM healthcare announcement. While scant on details, it promises to use technology to simplify care. It will initially cover the more than 1 million employees of the three companies, but with companies as ambitious as this, the goal is obviously to reach much larger scale. Much like Amazon Go stores, an Amazon healthcare marketplace will make it easier for employers and employees to shop for a variety of healthcare goods and services. While this shifts the work and choice to consumers, it also incentivizes them to make the more efficient decision for the system as a whole, just as having an Amazon Go store down the street can incentivize a consumer to do the “last mile” logistics work on his/her own and walk to the store.
Recall how Amazon Go started: For the past year, it’s been open to Amazon employees only as the company presumably worked out the kinks and got the technology just right. They’ve done the same with AWS (Amazon developers were the first and largest users of the AWS developer platform, providing almost instant scale for the project), logistics (Amazon eventually opened its logistics platform to third party suppliers, making it so anyone can sell on its website), etc. etc. And so it will be with healthcare.
Earlier, I mentioned that Amazon is perhaps the only company in the world with an integrated digital and physical platform. Nowhere is this model more critical to success than in healthcare. While there has been much hype about virtual care and advances in telemedicine, most people still prefer to visit a minute clinic or doctor for most of their healthcare needs.
When Amazon built the Amazon Marketplace, it didn’t immediately open it up to third-party suppliers. First, it simply sold millions of books that no physical store could possible inventory. Eventually, Amazon allowed third parties to sell on its platform, granting them access to the millions of loyal customers Amazon had captured by that point. These suppliers were able to compete on price to deliver consumers an ever-growing list of goods and services, allowing Amazon to become The Everything Store. Amazon even took over the physical distribution of goods for these third parties, building the warehouses and logistics network necessary to serve customers across the country.
Note that this approach to building a marketplace of consumer goods took decades. Not until the past couple years has the power and scale of Amazon truly become part of the public conversation. Building a similar healthcare marketplace will take even longer. The players are larger and often monopolistic. There are about three pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), three insurers, two drug distributors in the U.S., two hospital suppliers, and local markets are often dominated by one or two health systems. Amazon will start slow, allowing employees to shop for just a few healthcare goods or services on its new healthcare marketplace (think of a good or service like books in the 1990s). It will slowly bring more employers and employees onto the marketplace before eventually opening up this infrastructure to healthcare suppliers of all types, allowing them to compete on price for any healthcare good or service under the sun. One of the biggest issues facing the healthcare industry is the lack of cost and quality transparency: Amazon’s healthcare marketplace, with its price and review tools right on the webpage, will bring immediate transparency to healthcare.
And now that Amazon has brought third parties onto its Marketplace, it often integrates backward, cutting out the third-party entirely by going directly to the manufacturer and playing hardball to get the product produced even more cheaply. Could it eventually do the same with healthcare? My instinct was to say yes, but if one looks at the many holdings of Berkshire Hathaway, it becomes apparent that a number of these holdings make perfect candidates for offering products or services on the Amazon healthcare marketplace. From Johnson & Johnson’s prescription drugs and consumer health products to DaVita’s dialysis services, these healthcare suppliers would be thrilled to offer services on the new marketplace, with access to the millions of employees Amazon will undoubtedly attract. Perhaps the perceived threat of Amazon attempting to integrate backwards and cutout the supplier will be incentive enough for these companies to keep prices low. In the long run, the Amazon healthcare marketplace will create an almost perfectly competitive market for suppliers, driving costs down for employers and squeezing profits for drug makers, insurance companies, and anyone else selling to employees, the way it has done for consumer goods. On the financial front, it’s always good to have JPMorgan on your side, seemingly buying into the long, long-term vision that is the Amazon healthcare marketplace.
As an aside, we haven’t even gotten to the massive data analytics and integration capabilities AWS can bring to a broken, fragmented electronic health records (EHR) system. In November, Amazon announced a partnership with Cerner to improve population health efforts by allowing for more advanced data collection and analytics. In addition, there are a plethora of new and exciting healthcare technologies and startups, from companies large and small. But, without an ability to easily integrate into an EHR, these technologies often have a hard time gaining traction with insurers or providers. AWS can change all this with developer-friendly APIs and protocols, providing increased integration and interoperability.
As always with Amazon, the possibilities are almost limitless. Healthcare has been one of the industries most resistant to technological change, with perverse incentives driving poor decision making at almost every level of the system. I’ll write more about this as details arise, but it’s an exciting development and should spur more investment in the already booming world of healthcare technology.
Oh, and we haven’t even talked about Alexa and her potential to revolutionize healthcare yet. Stay tuned.


text:
Snag the biggest deals of the year from the Minnesota heritage brand.
The week in local sales and events for home and garden
Lovegood & Co. recently opened off Grand Avenue in St. Paul with an eclectic mix of home goods and gifts
The week’s shopping and events highlights.
Plus: a preview of this year’s sale
The week’s top sales and events at Twin Cities retailers
With the recent opening of Design Within Reach’s massive new retail showroom at Edina’s Galleria shopping center, Minnesotan fans of the style now have a place to shop for authentic mid-century modern designs.
The week in shopping and events.
Minneapolis artist Kate Worum’s East Isles home is a cozy, eclectic haven in the city.
Modern furniture retailer, Design Within Reach, to reopen this fall with an 18,000-square-foot store in Edina’s Galleria.


text:
The Port of Los Angeles reported cargo volume in April decreased 9.5 percent compared with the same month last year.
Monthly imports dropped 10.4 percent year-over-year to 326,780 20-foot-equivalent units. Exports in April decreased 14.3 percent to 160,129 TEUs.
Combined, total loaded imports and exports in April totaled 486,910 TEUs, down 11.7 percent from 551,393 TEUs in the same month in 2012. Factoring in empties, which fell 1.5 percent year-over-year, overall April 2013 volume was 640,330 TEUs, versus 707,182 TEUs in April 2012.


text:
2010 was an interesting year for the Twilight series. To review: 'Twilight' in 2010: the best moments of the year for the 'Saga'. Now that it’s almost 2011, it’s time to think of what Twilight fans have to look forward this year. With the release of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1coming on November 18th, it’s sure to be a good one! Here are ten of the most exciting moments yet to come in 2011.
Filming on Breaking Dawn has been going on for a month (give or take) now, and it is expected to pick back up from the cast and crew’s winter holiday break on January 3rd. While we know that the Baton Rouge set of Breaking Dawn is locked up tightly, the cast has never been more active on Twitter than it has been this go-round. So, hopefully we’ll keep getting bits and pieces of information from them – not to mention some more of those specialBreaking Dawn snapshots Bill Condon (director) has been doling out (for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so far). This should tide us over until . . . .
THE OFFICIAL GUIDE!
At lastttttt . . . On April 12th, Stephenie Meyer’s Official Guide will hit stores. It’s been a long time coming, and fans have been very eager to see what Meyer has cooked up to explain any missing pieces in the Saga. If Bree Tanner was any indication of what was in store with theGuide, it should be a very interesting addition to the collection. The same will be true if Volume 2 of the Twilight Graphic Novel hits stores this year.
read the rest at Twilight Examiner


text:
Difficult to escape the metaverse for several months, as the topic is at the center of discussions. A few days ago, Carrefour he turned on Twitter with a video present virtual job interviews with a very “Second Life” aspect. While some are very critical of a Web3 that is still far from existing, Gartner is much more optimistic about our future uses. The consulting firm estimates that in 2026, 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse. It remains to be seen how and what to do. As explained in a recent interview, Christophe Cotin Valois, CEO of Welcome Max, ” uses in the metaverse remain unclear. Many will break their teeth and it seems likely that use will be where it is not intended, as is the case with augmented reality which today is mainly used in education and industry. “
While the contours of these future immersive virtual worlds remain to be defined, the race for innovation (and communication) is already well underway for brands. The human resources communication operation for Carrefour on The Sandbox (where the group bought a plot of land surface equivalent to 30 supermarkets“), Many brand experiences on Roblox (Nike, Gucci, Ralph Lauren …) or even partnerships between Fortnite and Balenciaga or Air Jordan … Not to mention the” Metaverse Fashion Week “which took place in March on Decentraland, with Tommy in particular Hilfiger, Estée Lauder and Dolce & Gabbana. Collaborations are numerous, especially on the side of large-scale distribution and retail.
You can’t talk about the metaverse without addressing two other topics: NFTs (see our guide on this topic) and cryptocurrencies, which are currently the most advanced consumer aspects – or at least those that generate the most business revenues.
Without prejudice to the rest of the story, where are we currently on these matters? We have selected 12 key figures that provide a clearer idea of the current importance of the metaverse and NFTs.
- Meta announced the hiring of 10,000 people in the next 5 years in the European Union to work on the subject.
- 62% of the French do not see the meaning of virtual worlds according to a barometer by the research agency iligo.
- 25% of people will spend 1 hour a day in the metaverse by 2026, according to Gartner
- According to the company Grand View Research (GVR), the turnover linked to the metaverse could reach 678 billion dollars by 2030or an average canceled growth rate approaching 40%.
- Bloomberg sees even bigger, with an estimated income of $ 800 billion in 2024.
- The Roblox platform claims 54 million daily active users in the first quarter of 2022. The number of monthly active users was 202 million as of April 2021.
- The Sandbox, for its part, capped to 350,000 monthly active users.
- During its second season, The Sandbox spawned 4.7 million visitsfor 1.12 million hours played (i.e. less than 15 minutes on average per session).
- The Sandbox is still rated at 4 billion dollars.
- The most expensive NFT in the world has been sold $ 91.8 million. This is The Merge, a work of art by PAK, which was purchased by 28,983 collectors.
- NFT sales reported $ 25 billion in 2021, of which over 20 billion for the second half alone. This figure did not reach $ 100 million in 2020.
- In total, according to DappRadar, more than 28 million portfolios traded NFTs in 2021, up from 545,000 in 2020.


text:
Drax has posted positive year-end results for 2013, and has even reported that the first biomass-burning unit – converted last April – has outperformed expectations.
As Drax’s retail business, this is good news for Haven and its customers, who can benefit from a secure supply of renewable energy through Drax’s biomass-burning capabilities.
Haven itself has announced that 2013 was another significant year of growth, with a turnover of circa £751m compared to £451m in 2012. It is also on-track to deliver 12-15 TWh by 2015.
Natalie Keogh, operations director at Haven Power comments: “With Drax’s continued support, 2013 was a year of substantial growth once again. Our sales increased by 59 percent in volume compared to 2012, and in such a competitive market, this demonstrates the strength of our offering.
“In addition, the renewable energy we can offer our customers is becoming more and more popular, with 50 percent of the electricity supplied in 2013 on Levy exempt power. Drax Group is committed to delivering renewable power, generated from biomass, at competitive prices to a growing number of customers. We know there are a number of businesses who share our vision, not just about the environment but also our commitment to enabling customers to meet obligations and help the UK become a more sustainable economy.”
“This year is about continued growth, retaining our existing customer base, and ensuring we keep our customer-focused proposition as we grow.”
To view the full Drax results, click here.
What are the business benefits of going green with renewable power?
Get renewable electricity for your business at no extra cost and help your business reach its CSR targets, while reducing your environmental impact.
21 Mar 2018 | Industry
Returning ‘Beast from the east’ has bark worse than its bite
Keep up to date with energy market changes over the last 7 days with the Haven Power market report. Here’s a summary of the week starting 12th March.
20 Mar 2018 | Industry
3 painless ways to optimise energy and reduce business costs
Take your business energy efficiency to the next level and save even more through business energy audits.
16 Mar 2018 | Industry


text:
August 22, 2022
NEC will Make a Full-scale Entry into Services of Face Recognition Payment
This service is to enable payment at concession stands and other locations by recognizing faces with tablet terminals without the use of cash, credit cards, or smart phones. This will reduce the risk of lost or stolen cards as well as manpower constraints. Biometric "hand-held payments" are likely to start becoming widely used.
NEC has been conducting demonstration experiments of face recognition payment services at tourist spots and train station stores since 2016. It was determined that the fee structure and services could be formulated and the business could be fully developed. Revenue is generated from initial installation costs and system usage fees based on the settlement amount. The company intends to introduce the system in retail stores and theme parks in the future.
Cashless payments include credit cards and QR code payments using smartphones, but they can be lost or stolen. Biometric authentication using face and fingerprints can reduce these risks. It is expected to reduce accounting workload and address labor shortages in the retail and service industries.
According to Global Information, a research company, the market for biometric authentication, including payment by face and vein, is expected to grow 1.9 times from 2022 to $82.9 billion by 2027. Demand for contactless authentication systems is expected to grow due to the spread of the new coronavirus, and facial recognition is an area where growth is expected. The use of facial recognition to enter and exit facilities is expanding.
While it is used in security and other fields around the world, there are also concerns that it could become a means to monitor individuals on a daily basis, and regulations are being developed in the US and Europe. In April, NEC established a dedicated organization within the company to focus on making recommendations to society regarding face recognition and other issues. If appropriate regulations are developed and safety concerns diminish, facial recognition payments are undoubtedly expected to expand.


text:
Press Releases Archive
Today, financial marketers have to wrangle with an array of different messaging systems and marketing CMS tools. Can't it be easier?
The Business Answer Center is a “How To” suite of online educational topics that banks and credit unions can offer business banking customers.
One Pennsylvania credit union says yes, and they have the numbers to prove it.
CNN Money recently interviewed Jeffry Pilcher from of The Financial Brand for an article about banks vs. credit unions. Here is the full transcript of that interview.
After employees of Oregon Community raised $45,000 for the United Way, a few of them got to throw pies in the faces of senior execs.
Visa prepaid cards will be available at ATMs across the U.S., following a successful pilot test.
TSYS has partnered with Truaxis to make transaction- and behavior-specific marketing offers available to banks and credit unions.
Retail service provider helps define bank headquarters and their affiliates from branch builds and redesign to promotional offerings.
Clients of the world renowned credit union marketing firm have now captured 36 industry awards in 2012.
Maps Credit Union will award $2,000 to someone who can help solve the problem of teen homelessness in Marion County.
Contest winner will receive an expense-paid trip to Las Vegas concert series featuring Taylor Swift, Usher, Aerosmith, Miranda Lambert, Bon Jovi, and Rihanna.
Captive Indoor Media, a leader in digital branch signage and marketing systems, launches its new Codigo on-hold voice messaging product.
Page 1 of 212


text:
The number of visitors to the 21st Modacalzado + Iberpiel, the International Footwear and Leather Fashion Trade Fair in Madrid, was down by 15 percent from the previous edition to 14,557 professionals. The organizers of the fair, held last March 7-9, believe this was linked to Spain’s general election, held on Sunday March 9. According to the organizers, attendance was higher over the first two days than previously, but fell on the last day when the election was taking place. Indeed, the fall in visitor numbers was greatest among professionals from the farthest Spanish regions, such as the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Catalonia and Galicia. The decrease in visitor numbers was also attributed to the progressive fall in the number of multi-brand footwear outlets in Spain.
The fair was not necessarily disappointing for all the exhibitors. Pascual Ros, marketing manager at Mustang, said his company exceeded the sales figure it achieved at the March 2007 fair. Officials at the company were completely satisfied also because they had invited customers to order reassortments for the Spring/Summer season. Callaghan reported big orders from Korea, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Greece. Managers of Martinelli and Pons Quintana were quoted as mentioning a good level of sales.
Foreign visitors represent 17.8 percent of the total attendance, down from 18.9 percent one year ago. The number of visitors from Portugal dropped to 1,176, compared with 1,337 last September, in spite of the growing trade between the two countries. On the other hand, a group of 40 trade professionals was brought in from Russia by the organizers of the fair, IFEMA, and by the Chamber of Commerce of Madrid.
The fair featured shoe and leathergoods collections from 540 exhibiting companies, of which 423 were Spanish and 117 were foreign.


text:
This follows the sending of a letter to the United States Trade Representative and the European Commission for Trade on October the 7th signed by some 18 US and EU associations expressing their shared opposition to tariffs on wine, distilled spirits and beer and urging their immediate elimination.
Yesterday, the EU announced a $4 billion tariff package on goods from the US – authorised by the World Trade Organisation last month – in retaliation for tariffs imposed on EU goods by the Trump Administration.
“The application of excessive and unwarranted tariffs has to end,” today’s coalition said, “Hospitality businesses and our consumers, as well as producers, wholesalers and importers of distilled spirits, wine and beer are being slammed from both sides of the Atlantic in an aircraft dispute wholly unrelated to the drinks business. This is on top of the closings of restaurants, bars, distilleries and winery tasting rooms because of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Today’s additional tariffs on US products will further degrade the difficult situation the wines and spirits industries have been facing since additional tariffs were imposed in 2018. Specifically, on October the 18th, 2019, the US imposed a 25% tariff on Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Single Malt Irish Whiskey from Northern Ireland, liqueurs and cordials from Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the UK as well as certain wines from Germany, France, Spain and the UK.Altogether the tariff package added another $7.5 billion onto costs
This resulted in a painful 34% decline in Scotch Whisky exports between October 2019 and August 2020 ($949 million) compared to October 2018 through August 2019 ($1.43 billion), a 28% decline in liqueurs and cordials exports between October 2019 and August 2020 ($371 million) compared to October 2018 through August 2019 ($514 million) and a 54% decline in wine exports between November 2019 and August 2020 ($528 million) compared to November 2018 through August 2019 ($1.2 billion).
Similarly, the EU imposed a 25% tariff on Bourbon and other US Whiskeys in June 2018 in response to US tariffs on steel and aluminium which has resulted in a 41% decline in American Whiskey exports to the EU (including the UK until it departs the EU customs union).
According to an analysis by the Distilled Spirits Council of the US this has cost American Whiskey exporters more than $300 million since the EU’s retaliatory tariff went into effect in June 2018.
The coalition also noted that the imposition of additional tariffs would force more businesses to close their doors and lay-off more workers in sectors already severely weakened because of the global pandemic and related restrictions.
“The US and EU need to return to the negotiating table without delay,” the coalition added, “They need to immediately suspend the current tariffs as they negotiate an agreement to simultaneously eliminate additional tariffs on distilled spirits and wine in these disputes unrelated to the sector.”
The coalition is now made up of the Distilled Spirits Council Of The United States, SpiritsEUROPE, Scotch Whisky Association, Comité Européen Des Entreprises Vins, Wine Institute, American Beverage Licensees, WineAmerica, Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Of America, National Retail Federation, American Craft Spirits Association, American Distilled Spirits Alliance, U.S. Wine Trade Alliance, National Council Of Chain Restaurants, Kentucky Distillers’ Association, National Restaurant Association, National Association Of Beverage Importers, National Association Of Wine Retailers, The Wine and Spirits Trade Association, Napa Valley Vintners, and Wine And Spirits Shippers Association.
Despite the announcement by the EU of the latest set of tariffs, it was hoped that more progress could be made with the President-elect Joe Biden in resolving the issue.


text:
In its way to dominate the crypto market, Coinbase just officially launched its office in Japan and appoints Fintech leader and former Morgan Stanley Janpan employee, Nao Kitazawa as its Japan office’s CEO. The company plans to be as regulated and complaint as they are in the US to provide its products and services.
Coinbase agenda: A regulated & complaint crypto company
One of the biggest crypto exchanges, US-based Coinbase has now officially announced that it has entered into the Japanese crypto market. In its quest to become the Google of crypto, looks like Coinbase is leaving no stone unturned.
After going on acquisition and hiring sprees, a few weeks back Coinbase launched specific products to lure in the institutional investors.
Now, the company is expanding into one of the most crypto-active markets. The official blog post reads:
“As part of our effort to accelerate the global adoption of cryptocurrency, today we’re announcing the launch of Coinbase’s office in Japan.”
We’re excited to announce that Coinbase is coming to Japan! ??
— Coinbase (@coinbase) June 4, 2018
Just like in US, Coinbase is going to work out with the authorities here as well:
“As in other markets, we plan to take a deliberate approach to our rollout in Japan, which means working hand-in-hand with the Japanese FSA to ensure compliance with local laws at every stage.”
Regulation is one of the main focus of the company as pointed out by the Vice President and GM of Coinbase, Dan Romero:
“As a regulated, compliant crypto company in the U.S., we will focus on building that same level trust with new customers in Japan.”
Coinbase gets Nao Kitazawa as CEO, former morgan stanley Japan employee
When it comes to handling the Japan office, the post declares:
“Under the leadership of the highly-respected and admired fintech leader, Nao Kitazawa, our new office will lay the foundation for Japan’s crypto investors to access a range of Coinbase’s products.”
This time also, Coinbase nagged the top talent as Romero states:
“He is the former COO of Money Design, a company that helped pioneer automated investment advice platforms in Japan. Prior to Money Design, Nao worked at Morgan Stanley Japan as an investment banker, where he guided a fleet of impressive merger and acquisition deals and composition of funds in the real estate sector.”
Nao also “sits on the board of the Fintech Association of Japan” and has experience in litigation cases, having worked in an international law firm.
With the latest developments, looks like Coinbase is planning to become a crypto giant of the market and dominate this space with great talent and more geographical presence.
What do you think of Coinbase’s move into Japan? Share your thoughts with us!


text:
CANADA: Men’s Wear Maker’s Staff To Return To Work
Seventy per cent of staff at Jack Victor Ltd, a Montreal men's clothing manufacturer, have voted to accept an agreement hammered out between union representatives and management. Employees will return to work in anticipation of a new four-year contract based on terms and conditions hammered out between the parties.
This content is for 1 Month Trial, Corporate Account, and Corporate – Member members only. LoginJoin Now


text:
PCs With Low Specks can play top end games with Nvidia’s new streaming service
GeForce NOW for MAC and PC! You’ll have a Pascal-powered PC in the cloud, able to run all your games with amazing performance.
Playing high-end games will no longer require having a high-end PC with the right specs. At least, if Nvidia has anything to say about it.
The company announced a new service called Geforce Now that allows PC games to be remotely streamed to just about any laptop or desktop PC even if it has low-end specs. This also allows Mac users to install and play games that are typically limited to Windows machines.
The service has been in development for the past five years, the company said. Onstage during a keynote at CES, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang
GeForce Now will begin rolling out in March. There are two tiers of the service: the GeForce GTX 1060 PC and the GeForce GTX 1080 PC. The GTX 1060 starts at 20 hours of gameplay for $25 and the GTX 1080 costs $25 for 10 hours.


text:
Digital Storm has revealed its Steam Machine: a black rectangle bearing a red logo, costing $1,469 (about £897).
While it won't officially be unveiled until the Consumer Electronics Show in January, some information has been announced now.
For example, the Steam Machine is set to support a range of configurations, including one capable of supporting a NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan graphics card. It'll also be liquid-cooled and be able to handle up to a 700W power supply.
Digital Storm's creation has slightly larger dimensions than an Xbox One, though will be able to stand vertically on its end. It'll also boot both Windows and Steam OS.
We'll have more info once CES 2014 rolls around, where we should also get to check out some of its competitors, including the cheaper one recently revealed by iBuyPower.


text:
The amount of freight carried by the for-hire transportation industry rose 1.2 percent in February from January, rising for the fourth consecutive month, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS) Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI). The February 2013 index level (113.9) was 20.1 percent above the April 2009 low during the recession and the highest level since December 2011. BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, reported that the level of freight shipments in February measured by the Freight TSI (113.9) was 1.1 percent below the revised all-time high level of 115.2 in December 2011. BTS’ TSI records begin in 2000. Beginning with this release, BTS has improved procedures and refined the TSI methodology. As a result there have been revisions in monthly numbers released previously. Documentation will be made available in the near future.
The Freight TSI measures the month-to-month changes in freight shipments by mode of transportation in tons and ton-miles, which are combined into one index. The index measures the output of the for-hire freight transportation industry and consists of data from for-hire trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight. The TSI is seasonally adjusted so that trends reflect changes beyond normal monthly fluctuations.
Analysis: The Freight TSI increased for a fourth consecutive month in February 2013, with growth across most freight modes. This increase was consistent with several other indicators pointing to economic growth in February.
Trend: With the February increase to 113.9, the index has exceeded its 2012 range for two months in a row. With four consecutive monthly increases, the February index was at its second highest level since April 2009 during the recession exceeded only by December 2011. January 2013 was the third highest level since April 2009. After dipping to 94.8 in April 2009, the index rose 20.1 percent in the succeeding 46 months.
Index highs and lows: Freight shipments in February 2013 (113.9) were 20.1 percent higher than the recent low in April 2009 during the recent recession (94.8). In April 2009, freight shipments were at their lowest level over the entire history of the TSI since 2000. The February 2013 level is down 1.1 percent from the historic peak reached in December 2011 (115.2).


text: An identity theft ring in Apopka, Florida, was shut down this week after police acted on a warrant for a drug bust, WFTV-TV reports. According to the Orlando Sentinel, police entered the home of Renald Wilder and Holly Eckert under suspicions that they were running a marijuana and crack cocaine operation. What they found inside, in addition to the drugs, was a copious amount of identity theft paraphernalia. Specifically, at least 1,000 stolen Florida driver's licenses, 1,000 stolen credit cards, an eight-inch stack of gift cards, 200 pairs of high-end shoes still in boxes and six laptops were seized from the house. The defendants allegedly used the computers to complete transactions using fraudulent identity verification. Apopka police chief Robert Manley wasn't surprised to find the additional items. "This is definitely a hub for (identity theft) in Central Florida," he told the news source. ID theft is quickly becoming the preferred choice for criminals. It poses a less threatening risk than bank robbery or drug dealing, and, according to police chief Jim Madden, routinely nets about $250,000.


text:
Advanced Micro Devices, the second largest comp microprocessor company, announced that last month it began shipping processors manufactured at Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, in Singapore.
The new AMD64 bit processors were manufactured under a 90 nanometer process, standard in today's microprocessor industry.
The Sunnyvale Calif. company said it selected Chartered to augment its production â€œbecause of a shared philosophy of flexibility and agility in manufacturing,â€ according to Daryl Ostrander, senior VP of logic technology at AMD, in a statement.
AMD and Chartered signed the manufacturing deal in 2004, aiming for volume production by the second half of 2006. On target, AMD was confident of its flawless execution and delivery.
â€œAchieving mature yields on-plan and ahead of schedule for 90nm volume production in support of AMDâ€™s expanding market opportunity have been our collective goals since we initiated our manufacturing collaboration in 2004, and we are equally proud of these results,â€ said Kay Chai â€œKCâ€ Ang, senior VP of fabrication operations at Chartered.
The chipmaker said it will continue to enhance operations at Chartered with a planned transition to the more advanced 65 nanometer process technology in the middle of next year.
Intel current Woodcrest processor, introduced two weeks ago, already uses the 65 nanometer process.


text:
Investors are showing renewed faith in
computer maker Dell, despite an ongoing
investigation into its accounting and audit functions.
Shares in the company have risen 8% since the company said on 29 March that
it was moving toward a conclusion of an internal accounting audit
According to reports, analysts expect founder
Michael Dell and his new
team to turn the company around.
Does Darwin's theory apply to taxation? Colin ponders...
The EC has been instructed to draft a European Union (EU) directive authorising an EU financial transaction tax, which would apply to ten of the EU’s 28 member states
Accountancy watchdog the FRC has dropped its investigation into the former chief financial officer of Tesco, nearly two years after the supermarket was engulfed in an accounting scandal
Colin imagines how Apple's logo might change in the wake of the EC's ruling over its Irish tax arrangements


text:
An iPhone 4S buyer has filed a lawsuit against Apple in a California court complaining that Apple delivered less (than what it promised) with automated the Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface better known as Siri on iPhone 4s. Siri is the voice-activated assistant software in its smartphone, reports Reuters.
Frank Fazio, who filed that suit, lives inNew York City,Brooklyn.
Fazio’s lawyers want the case to have a class action status and represent all the people who bought iPhone 4S – the latest iPhone model from Apple.
The advertisements of iPhone 4S showed people asking Siri to help them find restaurants or a rodeo in town. Fazio, disappointed with the actual performance of Siri, considers it as “intentional misrepresentation” and unfair competition.
Siri has been referred by some experts as a direct challenge to Google’s search engine. The software is expected to understand context of sentence spoken by a user. It also helps users make calls, send email, make notes, and much more. It is also able to do mathematical calculations for the users.
However, according to Fazio lawyers, Siri claims were “misleading and deceptive.”
“Promptly after the purchase of his iPhone 4S, plaintiff realized that Siri was not performing as advertised,” said Fazio’s lawsuit. “For instance, when plaintiff asked Siri for directions to a certain place, or to locate a store, Siri either did not understand what plaintiff was asking, or, after a very long wait time, responded with the wrong answer.”
No official response has been received from Apple regarding the pending litigation over Siri.


text:
Since the game was announced a couple of years back, there has barely been any news released on the new Aliens game. Where we got only a handful of screen-shots before, now we can get a full glimpse of the game with its E3 demo narrated by Randy Pitchford, the CEO and President of Gearbox Software.
In traditional Aliens style, we see a group of marines exploring Hadley’s Hope where they promptly get ripped apart by a horde of Xenomorphs. The game is currently set for a rough release window of 2012, and is being developed for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and Wii U. For more info head over to the official site, http://www.sega.com/alienscolonialmarines/


text:
A Squared Elxsi Entertainment, a joint venture between A Squared Entertainment and Tata Elxsi Ltd., has struck a deal to develop Stan Lee’s Mighty 7 superhero property to multiple formats and platforms in animation and live-action.
The deal is a partnership between A2E2, Lee’s POW! Entertainment and Archie Comics.
Stan Lee’s Mighty 7 introduces the famed comic-book creator’s new group of extraterrestrial super heroes and also sees Lee — co-creator of such iconic Marvel characters as Spider-Man and the X-Men — appear alongside his new creations. The deal will see the development of transmedia content based on the new characters.
In addition to the production of original animated and live action programming, A2E2 will lead the global licensing program for the property, with new toys, digital and entertainment products, accessories, apparel, books and additional branded merchandise a priority.
“We’re very excited at the prospect of launching Stan Lee’s new creations from the comic book into the digital domain,” says Andy Heyward, A2E2 founder and co-president. “Today’s multiformat, multichannel entertainment world offers us a unique opportunity to create a truly immersive storytelling experience fit for the next generation of superheroes – including Stan himself!“
The deal was announced from the MIPTV 2012 market, taking place this week in Cannes, France.


text:
The arrival of the Belgian Raf Simons as co-creative director to Miuccia Prada at her Italian brand brings together two of fashion’s most original and esoteric designers.
Their debut as a doubles partnership, the first time two such established names have teamed up as equals, came during Milan fashion week, but was made online, with a filmed show followed by a live interview in which the two designers responded to questions sent by members of the public.
The clothes were prettier and the mood brighter than might have been expected. Both designers view fashion as an intellectual art form rather than a decorative one, and tackle social and political issues on their catwalks.
During his recent spell at Calvin Klein, Simons turned his New York fashion week shows into a dystopian commentary on the American dream in the age of Trump. But against a simple backdrop of sunshine-yellow drapes came a procession of vintage-couture shapes and elegant silhouettes, worn with pastel satin kitten heels.
If there was any power struggle within the partnership – both Simons and Prada were keen to stress in their interview that there was not – then a first glance would suggest Prada would seem to have the upper hand.
The triangular Prada logo took pride of place, on earrings that looked immediately waiting-list worthy and breastplate-sized on T-shirts. Nylon, the bricks-and-mortar of Prada since it was rebuilt on the back of cult 90s handbags, was everywhere. But the bones of the collection bore Simon’s handwriting.
Soft coats falling off the shoulders and clutched at the lapels recalled Simons’ time at Jil Sander, when his finale collection featured similar looks. Long hemlines and willowy shapes also suggested Simons’ hand, Prada’s silhouette having tended to be squarer and shorter than the fashion norm. The result was harmonious, wearable and will please fans of both designers, although its chic understatement may not immediately wow the new generation of millennial shoppers whom Prada needs to win over.
The film was clean and simple, just the models – each one an unknown making her catwalk debut – and the camera rig, which was part of the set rather than being hidden away. Their interview radiated mutual respect, even with the pair seated separately as social distancing dictates. Simons cited Prada’s own personal style – as ever, a pleated skirt and a simple sweater – as a core inspiration for the collection.


text:
For the first time, a portion of lodging tax money reserved for construction or maintenance of tourism-related facilities will be used to promote visiting Friday Harbor during the summer, from May to August.
The Friday Harbor Town Council Thursday allocated $40,000 for a blitz of summer promotions over the Internet, in print, on radio and on television.
The San Juan Island Chamber of Commerce was allocated $15,000 for a promotion with Comcast for on-air promotions in four zones: South Snohomish, North Seattle, Bellevue-Issaquah, Woodinville-Redmond. A commercial by SanJuanIslandsTV.com will be broadcast by Comcast over Bravo, Comedy, E!, Headline, Animal Planet and Fox News channels. A banner video will be placed on Comcast.net.
In a proposal from Comcast, the cable company claims the commercial will reach 63.2 percent of adults age 25-54. It claims its online ads receive 186,667 impressions per month.
The Town Council also voted 5-0 to solicit a proposal from the San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau for a summer advertising campaign in an amount up to $25,000. That campaign is expected to focus on print and radio.
The town charges 4 percent in lodging taxes for tourism-related uses: 2 percent for tourism-related facilities, such as the public restrooms on Sunshine Alley, and 2 percent for promotions to bolster tourism in the shoulder season, the thought being that the town and island had no problem attracting visitors during the summer months.
That thought has changed. After two years of sluggish economy, Chamber of Commerce executive director Vernadel Peterson, Visitors Bureau executive director Deborah Hopkins and Town Councilwoman Carrie Brooks, who also chairs the town Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, all spoke of the urgency businesses feel to have a successful summer before the slower shoulder season begins.
And sluggish it has been. Sales and lodging tax revenues in 2009 were the lowest since 2005, forcing cutbacks in town payroll and services and causing several businesses to close. In 2009, the only month to generate more lodging tax than in the same month the previous year was November.
All told, the town received $117,376.55 as its share of first 2 percent lodging tax in 2009, $20,000 less than in 2008. Ditto for the second 2 percent tax. The town received $895,132.17 as its share of sales tax revenue, $132,075 less than in 2008 and $230,000 less than in 2007.


text:
Katrina Kaif has had a wrestling phase during the early days of her career. From her accent being teased to dance moves, she was considered your average hero. But she put in so much work that even those who hate her today are in awe of her. She has built an empire for herself, not just in Bollywood, but even on the beauty line. Today we are going to talk about your net worth. Scroll down to see all the details!
Over the years, Katrina has grown into a great actress and entrepreneur. He has appeared in more than 40 films, including some greats like Thugs Of Hindostan, the Tiger franchise, Zero, Singh Is Kiing, Namaste London, among others. Kat is reportedly paid a salary of 11 million rupees for movies.
Other than that, he has been featured in a number of brand endorsements, starting with food and beverage, lifestyle, and fashion brands. Today, Katrina Kaif owns a beauty empire of her own: Kay Beauty.
As recently reported, Katrina Kaif invested a sum of Rs 2.02 crore in Nykaa in 2018. The results have been more than fruitful, as he has won a sum of around 22 million rupees, just after 3 years. Thanks to the IPO that soared, far beyond expectations!
Meanwhile, Kat also owns a luxurious bungalow in London’s Hampstead, which is worth almost 7.02 crore. Apart from that, he also lives in a luxurious apartment in Mumbai that is worth almost 45 million rupees.
And wait, the list is not over. Katrina Kaif loves good walks! The Sooryavanshi actress reportedly owns a number of beasts, including Land Rover Range Rover Vogue LWB, Audi Q7, and Mercedes ML350.
All in all, Katrina is said to be a proud person with a net worth of approximately 224 million rupees today. Huge, right? We hope you just move up and go from here!
Stay tuned to Koimoi for more entertaining pieces.
Must read: Rohit Shetty returns it with a savage response when asked about a Muslim villain in Sooryavanshi


text:
Monday was a great day for Tesla Inc, as their shares roared by over 6.5% after an analyst for Wedbush named Dan Ives boosted the base-case price target, saying that he can see a scenario where the maker of the electric vehicle market leaders shares could reach $1,000 or above, about doubling what it is right now.
During afternoon trading Tesla saw it’s stock reach as high as $524.32 putting it above it’s previous record high of $499.27 and seeing it close at $521.85. Putting the shares at that point sees the value of Tesla Inc. grow by over $21 billion in market capitalization, seeing it’s total reach the $485 billion mark.
Mr. Ives says he raised his base-case stock target price to $560 from it’s old $500 mark, noting that the rating of neutral he has had on Tesla since April 2019 would not stay. However, Mr. Ives raised his bull-case price target from $800 to $1,000, an increase of 25%. “With the sustained path to profitability and S&P 500 index inclusion achieved, the Tesla bull story is now all about a stepped up EV demand trajectory into 2021,” Mr. Ives wrote to clients in a released note.
Mr. Ives said that what we are seeing now is “a major inflection of EV demand globally, with expectations that EV vehicles ramp from the current 3% of total auto sales to 10% by 2025,” an increase of more than threefold within five calendar years. He followed up noting that “We believe this demand dynamic will disproportionately benefit the clear EV category leader Tesla over the next few years especially in the key China region which we believe could represent around 40% of its EV deliveries by 2022, given the current brisk pace of sales with 150K+ deliveries in its first year out of the gates with Giga 3”
Mr. Ives also noted that the Model 3, the lowest priced Tesla vehicle is the current major driver for profit and growth the upcoming Cybertruck and lower cost crossover Model Y may help the company hit it’s 1 million delivery target in 2023, even noting that 2022 is a possibility. This year Tesla’s stock has gained 35.2% just this month, and has increased by over 525% this year. The S&P Index has gained just 11% this year in comparison, showing how hot Tesla’s stock is .


text:
Push for higher garment worker wages in Asia
Asian garment unions have agreed that industry level bargaining must be developed in each country as the best means of securing higher wages and better working conditions across the continent.
Meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, IndustriAll global union affiliates from seven Asian countries discussed how to strengthen their collaboration towards achieving living wages for garment workers in the region.
Following the discussion, affiliates agreed that industry level bargaining must be developed in line with the ACT agreement between IndustriAll and leading garment brands, while unions will continue to take a more strategic approach to factory-level collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiation.
The unions have been campaigning for higher minimum wages and more effective mechanisms but say low union density makes achieving higher minimum wages difficult, while non-compliance and lack of effective enforcement of minimum wages are constant problems.
Now, unions say the focus needs to be on a more strategic approach to factory-level CBA negotiation by taking note of examples set across the continent:
- Pushing for multi-employer CBAs or sectoral agreements at provincial level (Vietnam)
- Finding out which brands factories are producing for and putting on pressure; using the global framework agreements with Inditex and H&M (Bangladesh)
- Benchmarking CBAs from different companies in the same industry (Philippines, Indonesia)
- Mapping factories which do not yet have a CBA (Myanmar)
- Coordinating bargaining by unions in the same company group, brand or industry base with eventual goal of achieving a single agreement for the group (Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam)
- Merging unions within the same company (Philippines, Thailand)
- Negotiating regional or zonal multi-employer CBAs (Indonesia).
Other trade union organisations such as ITUC, Solidarity Center and APHEDA also attended the meeting and pledged their continued support to union living wage campaigns.
- Fashion fit for the future – strategies for speed
- Digitisation to drive new apparel-making models
- Will new Vietnam wage hinder competitiveness?
- Under Armour Lighthouse will disrupt production
- How TAL Apparel is staying ahead of the game
- Child refugees found in Turkey apparel factories
- Gap to shutter all UK Banana Republic stores
- Chinese manufacturer invests $20m in US facility
- Reebok Liquid Factory reinvents shoe production
- M&S "unappealing" clothing a barrier to growth
- Africa-Med strategic sourcing review – comparing East Africa, North Africa and Turkey
- REPORT BUNDLE: Africa-Med, Southeast Asia and Central America strategic sourcing pack
- Southeast Asia strategic sourcing review – a focus on Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar
- Apparel (GLOBAL) - Industry Report
- Global Sports and Fitness Wear Market 2016-2020


text:
Speaking in a conference call with analysts, the French firm’s chief detailed the company’s focus on the ‘digital revolution’ and the steps it is taking to ensure it comes out on top.
“We are recruiting a dream team of digital geeks and experts that can really help us to win the battle. And we are very excited, because we think that it’s going to be a great competitive advantage,” he explains.
“We have recruited many people, because it’s a complete new expertise and we want to have the best expertise in the industry.”
Strategy in place
L’Oréal’s latest digital strategy has already seen the appointment of Lubomira Rochet as Chief Digital Officer, who says that the digital ambition for the cosmetics maker is to anchor the Group’s strategy, which is the conquest of the next billion consumers.
Agon adds that e-commerce has now become really significant for the company too as it targets more than $1 billion this year for the sales and the growth of the company, meaning there is an enhanced focus on digital increases.
“We try to make sure that every expense makes sense, and we don’t spend in digital just to study digital,” he continues.
“We believe that it helps us especially for some targets, for some categories, [and is] very attractive.”
The L’Oréal chief adds that he thinks investment in the ‘digital revolution’ will be a competitive advantage as the company strongly believes that it will be deeply transformed by it, but they must act fast and now to stay on top.
The ‘significant’ investment L’Oréal continues to make in accelerating the digital transformation and development of its brands is expected to continue in the second half of the year after the first half results reported a positive push in this area.
“Thanks in particular to a rich innovation portfolio, prospects of rapid e-commerce growth and the continuing roll-out of recently acquired brands, we are projecting an acceleration in growth in the second half,” says Agon.
“We are confident in our ability to outperform the beauty market and achieve a year of significant growth in both sales and profits."
The Paris-based cosmetics maker saw first half sales rise by 14.7% to €12.8 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 15.3% in second quarter sales.


text:
German luxury carmaker Audi has announced 'Gear up for the Summer' service camp for its customers. The limited period camp, which commenced on April 8, will be held till April 20 at all Audi India workshops.
The purpose behind the Audi summer service camp is to ease the financial pressure on the customers along with maintaining their Audi vehicles in the best possible condition. The camp entails 50-point complimentary service check-up that ensures a comprehensive examination of the car and appropriate servicing as required.
According to the company, during the 'Gear up for the Summer' service camp use of only Audi genuine parts is ensured. Following the completion of servicing, the customers can get all the relevant information regarding the value of their car.
"Customer delight is at the core of our strategy in India and we at Audi continuously strive to deliver the best aftersales experience to our customers. As extended summer holidays approach, we do not only wait for customers to indicate their service requirements but we also proactively support them in taking the best care of their prized possession for planning their excursions. With our complimentary 50 point check-up and exclusive offers on select Audi genuine parts and accessories, we are confident that our customer's cars will be at prime for planning a holiday trip with the family this summer season," Audi India Head Rahil Ansari said.
Under the Audi summer service campaign, the luxury carmaker is providing special offers on almost all the services for a limited period.
"Keeping our global promise of Audi Service, we have ensured that a dedicated in-house team of service experts ensure that the world-class luxury and service standards that Audi customers are accustomed to will be available to them with ease and transparency at all Audi authorized workshops," Ansari added.
Audi 'Gear up for the Summer' service camp comprises 50-point complimentary service check-up, which includes general-technical, exterior, interior, air-conditioning, brake and tyres, undercarriage, road test and post-road test parameters. The customers will save 25 per cent on select Audi genuine parts and 10 per cent on Pirelli tyres.
During the service camp, there will be 25 per cent savings on engine oil and cars that are older than seven years will get their filters replaced. The customers can make 20 per cent savings on select Audi genuine accessories and save 15 per cent on the extended warranty.
Audi is also providing a complimentary on-spot vehicle evaluation during the 'Gear up for the Summer' service camp and an exchange bonus of Rs 1 lakh on purchase of a new Audi vehicle.


text:
Image sharing platform Pinterest, Inc. (NYSE: PINS) reported higher earnings and revenues for the fourth quarter of 2021, which also topped the market’s expectations. The positive results came as a major boost for the company’s stock which has been on a downward spiral for quite some time. PINS traded higher early Monday, continuing the uptrend that followed the announcement last week.
The San Francisco, California-based company reported adjusted earnings of $0.49 per share for the final three months of fiscal 2021, compared to $0.43 per share in the same period of last year. The latest number also beat analysts’ forecasts. The reported profit was $174.7 million or $0.25 per share, compared to $207.8 million or $0.30 per share in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Driving the bottom-line growth, net revenues rose 20% year-over-year to $846.7 million and came in above analysts’ forecast. Meanwhile, the number of monthly active users decreased 6% year-over-year to $431 million.
“We took important steps in 2021 with the launch of our foundational technology to deliver a video-first publishing platform. As we look ahead to 2022, we plan to further invest in our business as we scale the distribution of Idea Pins through our creator-led content efforts and enhance our core Pinner experience and shopping to make Pinterest the destination for inspiration and action on the internet,” said Ben Silbermann, CEO of Pinterest.
Over the past twelve months, Pinterest’s stock lost as much as 67% and slipped to a dismal $27. The shares have stayed below their long-term average and underperformed the market during that period.
Stocks you may like:
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) reported first quarter 2023 earnings results today. Net revenues grew 12% year-over-year to $7.9 billion. GAAP net income rose 6% to $4.2 billion while EPS grew
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) Thursday reported a decline in adjusted earnings and revenues for the fourth quarter. The semiconductor giant also provided guidance for the first quarter of 2023. Fourth-quarter
Shares of McCormick & Company Inc. (NYSE: MKC) were down over 5% on Thursday after the company missed expectations on its fourth quarter 2022 results and provided a lower-than-expected earnings


text:
Vietnam imported about 89,000 metric tons of pork valued at US$189.2 million in the first 10 months of 2022, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
That amount represents a year-on-year decline of 34.4 percent in volume and 39.6 percent in value.
It included nearly 12,000 metric tons of frozen pork worth $26.02 million imported in October, down 5.6 percent in volume and 22.4 percent in value compared to October 2021.
The country exported over 1,000 metric tons of pork, earning $5.77 million in the same month, up 113.3 percent in volume and 68.6 percent in value year on year.
Hong Kong and Laos were its major frozen pork importers.
This shows that Vietnam’s volume of imported pork and pork products is 10 times higher than the export amount.
“Currently, the amount of pork exported is really small compared to the total production output,” the Import and Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said in a report, citing shortcomings in the processing stage, the forecasting of supply and demand, and disease prevention, as well as unattractive prices due to high production costs as the reasons.
Live hog prices decreased in the second half of November due to weak purchasing power and abundant supply.
The prices ranged from VND51,000 ($2.1) to VND55,000 ($2.3) per kilogram in the country on Monday, according to the Vietnam Livestock Association.
The Import and Export Department forecast that the demand for pork would increase slightly during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, which begins around the latter half of January.
The agency set a target to achieve the total production output of about 4.5 metric tons of live hogs in 2023.
It expects the prices to go up by five percent next year over a recovery in demand for eating outside and shrinking supply.
It also forecast that the demand for meat will not drop as international arrivals are expected to bounce back from the second quarter of next year.


text:
Britain’s trade deficit with other countries widened by much more than expected in January as exports tumbled to their lowest level in over a year and a half.
There was a £9.8 billion deficit on goods in January, down from £7.7 billion in December, according to the Office for National Statistics. Economists had forecast a shortfall of £8.6 billion. The overall trade deficit, including the country’s dominant services sector, widened to £2.6 billion from £668 million.
This was mainly down to a 4 per cent fall in exports of goods, fuelling fears that the stronger pound was starting to harm exporters.
Exports to the European Union were down 3.7 per cent, while those to nations outside of Europe were 4.4 per cent lower, dealing a…


text:
A recent study conducted by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) has uncovered the substantial economic implications of internet shutdowns in Pakistan. Titled “The Economic Cost of Internet Closure,” this study sheds light on the profound impact of such disruptions on the nation’s economy.
Economic Consequences Arising Due to Internet Shutdowns in Pakistan
PIDE’s estimates starkly reveal that a 24-hour internet shutdown leads to a direct financial setback of Rs1.3 billion. This staggering figure represents 0.57 percent of the country’s daily GDP average, emphasizing the immense economic strain imposed by internet outages.
Dr. Nadeemul Haque, Vice Chancellor of PIDE, highlights the pivotal role of high-quality internet access in empowering the youth, particularly in remote regions which not only creates opportunities but also bridges the divide between the privileged and the general public. Access to online educational and professional tools empowers rural youth to compete on national and international platforms, ultimately contributing to economic growth.
Key Findings in Detail
The study’s key findings provide a comprehensive view of the repercussions:
1. Ride-hailing services, essential for modern transportation, face a daunting 97 per cent plunge in daily ride bookings during internet shutdowns. This translates into a daily industry loss ranging from Rs29 to 32 million.
2. Online food delivery services suffer a substantial blow, experiencing a 75 per cent decrease in daily orders. This results in a daily financial setback of Rs135 million.
3. The freelance workforce, a vital contributor to Pakistan’s economy, bears the brunt of these disruptions. Denied orders to freelance workers led to a loss exceeding $1.3 million, equivalent to approximately Rs390 million. These losses have a profound impact on both individual livelihoods and the overall national economy.
4. The telecommunications sector alone sustains a loss of Rs450 million when 3G/4G services are suspended for a single day.


text:
Steve Litchfield at allaboutsymbian.com and Anina at anina.typepad.com report of a new Google beta service: "Goggle News On Your Mobile". As I often read news on my mobile while traveling I had to take a look immediately and was very pleasantly surprised how they downscale and reorganize their normal news pages for mobile phones.
If you don’t have a mobile to check it out you can also get an idea of what they are doing by using this link from a PC browser.
I just wished they would be a little bit bolder and offer their mobile news beta not only on google.com but also on google.co.uk, google.de, etc. The news at google.com are just a little bit too U.S. centric for people not living in the U.S. So, Google, do something about this!


text:
When Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the launch of the iPhone (www.apple.com
) back in January 2007, applications were an afterthought. The phone came installed with traditional smartphone functions, such as a calendar, e-mail, and an address book, but the ability to install functional and productive tools was a blip on Apple's radar.
Then something awesome happened. In February 2008, Jobs released a software development kit to the general public, allowing any Tom, Dick, or Hilton to try their luck at making an iPhone application. Within weeks, the Apple Store was flooded with hundreds of apps ranging from the wonky (the Zippo lighter app) to the extremely useful (Google Maps and various banking tools).
In November, Apple announced that the number of applications available in its App Store hit the 100,000 mark. As of press time, iPhone owners worldwide have downloaded more than two billion apps. With those kind of numbers, it just makes sense that the hospitality industry should jump on the bandwagon. Not surprisingly, a handful of companies already have.
"We are targeting an evolving customer who is relying more and more on the usage of their mobile phone," says Baron Concors, chief information officer at Pizza Hut (www.pizzahut.com). Pizza Hut currently offers what is arguably one of the most successful food ordering iPhone apps to date. "We wanted to take advantage of the capabilities of the iPhone, whether it was the GPS location service to locate the nearest Pizza Hut, or the [touch screen] feature that allows the customer to make the pizza larger or smaller or add toppings. That's the kind of innovation that makes an application for the iPhone more exciting than using a Web site on your cell phone."
In August, Chipotle Mexican Grill (www.chipotle.com
) raised the bar on food ordering when it added its app to the Apple App Store. Through it, iPhone and iPod touch users can place and even pay for food orders directly from their device. Orders are highly customizable through the tool, with such options as "easy on the beans," and users can save their preferences for easy burrito buying the next time a craving hits.
"The iPhone and iPod touch give us powerful new ways to engage and serve our customers. While we have always made our high quality food affordable and accessible so everyone can eat better, we've probably never been this accessible," says Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle.
The app was developed by a collaborative partnership between Chipotle's internal IT team and Pervasent (www.pervasent.com), a Berkeley, Calif. firm that develops mobile applications; it was designed by the San Francisco-based interactive design and branding firm Sequence (www.sequence.com).
What makes the iPhone so great? It turns out it might not be the actual phone, but the applications. Any smartphone can tell you what appointments you have today, but few can get you to the nearest hotel based on your real-time coordinates, allow for a highly-customized burrito, or order you a pizza. "It's one of those things where the apps and the app store is the real 'killer app' of the iPhone," says Christopher Brya, director of user experience and e-commerce projects at Choice Hotels (www.choicehotels.com). Choice's app, launched in March, marked the first official global booking application launched by a hotel company. "With us, it's the ability to have 5,800 of our hotels, on one button, on someone's phone."
From the ground up
The biggest challenge when designing an application is deciding what functions to include and what to leave on the cutting room floor. The best way to determine what to put in the program is to query customers to learn what key tools they want. Choice's customer base wanted an easy way to locate a hotel near them, narrow down locations by city, view available rooms, and book a reservation. Once content is chosen, the only task left is to build the software.
Most companies developing apps are using in-house IT to develop the program and are outsourcing design elements and programming to vendors. "Obviously iPhone app development is not a skill set that usually sits around on staff at most companies," Pizza Hut's Concors explains. "We wanted to make sure we had the best talent working on it, and that was a mix of our own people and some partners, such as IMC2 (www.imc2.com)."
"The challenge is that you're building the car as your driving on the road," Choice Hotels' Brya says. "The SDK [software development kit] is very helpful, but it isn't all together helpful. There's got to be some trial and error, and when we started, few people that we reached out to had built these applications from scratch and were successful. Of course, this protracts the period of development a little bit, but it also makes you more savvy about how it actually works."
Keep in mind that Apple has to approve all applications before they can be distributed to guests, and iPhone apps can only be downloaded via the iTunes store. "Apple employees have to see, use, and approve every app that gets submitted, as well as every update that is released," Brya says. However, applications that are free to customers eschew any fees from Apple.
Once approved, a company must market the application to get it into customers' hands. An obvious way is through the company Web site, but the loyalty program can also boost downloads. What it really comes down to is word of mouth and guest loyalty.
"It's the 80/20 rule: you can build every possible thing known to man in the application, but at some point it will take you so long that you aren't going to be so innovative any more when you get it out the door," Concors says. "We focused on the things that our customers want to see."
Pizza Hut found a creative way to plug its app. The pizza chain had its staff educate customers about the application's availability and pushed the app hard on its popular Facebook site. And it appears to have worked. In early November, after just three months in the iTunes App Store, the app was approaching one million downloads and has already brought in $1 million in food sales.
"The companies that are making really good iPhone apps are getting a loyal following," Concors says. "If you look at the Facebooks or the Twitters, companies that are releasing great apps have customers singing their praises; when you have over six million people in the U.S. using one device you just can't ignore it."
To boost the appeal and marketability of its app, Chipotle timed its launch with the unveiling of a new web-based ordering system on its website. Customers can place secure credit card orders through an interface that also allows them to save their information for quick repeat orders. The app also allows customers to save their favorite meals online, and an expanded group ordering feature allows customers to place multi-item orders on the website under a single name.
Apple gets a lot of ink, but RIM, PALM, and Google are all getting into the application game. The question is, which phones are worth spending time and effort to port the apps over to?
"There has been some good growth with [Google's] Android, and we are seeing a lot of people in the mobile space with the Pre, and Blackberry is a huge player; but they all have their challenges," Brya says.
Motorola's Droid smart phone (www.motorola.com/droid
), which runs Google's Android software on the Verizon network, debuted strong on November 6, selling 100,000 phones in its opening weekend (about half of the inventory that Verizon had on hand). While its number of available applications totaled 25,000 at release, Android software is open source, so it will likely only be a matter of time before the Droid application count hits the six-figure mark.
"The key is the store - how do people download these apps? Right now Apple has the smoothest train running, and it isn't slowing down. We are very pleased with the app we have for Apple, but we aren't content. We want to improve it and make it better, and customers will drive us in the right direction," says Brya.


text:
PINEHURST - Best-selling author James Patterson will talk about his books and writing April 5 at Sandhills Community College.
Patterson has sold more books than any other author in the past three years and was the first author to have titles simultaneously on the New York Times adult and children's best-sellers list, according to his website.
He created the detective series featuring Alex Cross, and his book, "Alex Cross, Run" is currently at the top of several best-seller lists.
He also is a two-time Children's Choice Book Award Author of the Year nominee and won the award in 2010.
The event at Owens Auditorium will include a question-and-answer segment led by Stephen Smith, a local author, poet and musician. It is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Tickets are $20. VIP packages for two also include a copy of Patterson's book "Merry Christmas, Alex Cross" and two tickets to a book signing and reception after the event.
Tickets are available at the Given Memorial Library in Pinehurst.
- Steve DeVane


text:
A new report released by Ohio State University on Amazon’s recent sales show a loss in sales from US states which collect an online sales tax.
The report shows a lower possibility to convert a shopper after an additional charge is implemented. A 10% drop on average was recorded from households who, prior to the levied tax, use the online Ecommerce platform in states which collect the tax compared to states that do not. For high priced items, $300 and above, a larger 24% drop was shown.
The research was conducted on 245,000 households in California, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and New Jersey, states which now levy an online sales tax. The researchers looked at buying habits from the first half of 2012 up until the end of 2013, which over this time the tax was implemented.
Until recently, Amazon enjoyed a clear edge on its physical brick and mortar counterparts, as its customers were not forced to pay tax. Per US law, online customers are responsible to report online purchases and pay the accumulated taxes annually.
Given that no state or federal entity forced US residents to do so, the Marketplace Fairness Act was introduced, swaying the responsibility of collecting sales tax to the merchant. This has proven to be a difficult task as not all states have the same sales tax structure. Amazon does have an integrated tax calculator that adds on the local tax when making a purchase. The list of the states which require a sales tax can be viewed here.
More US states have stated they will follow the trend, like Florida for example, which plans to levy a tax on May 1st.
“There is no ambiguity. It has been their competitive advantage,” Brian Baugh, one of the report’s authors from Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business, said recently.
The research shows, since Amazon has been forced to collect taxes, brick and mortar sales rose by 2%. Additionally, Amazon Marketplace merchants who do not collect tax saw an increase of 61% in sales. With the additional tax, Amazon does state its prices are lower than its marketplace merchants and brick and mortar stores. This shows the psychological impact the move has had on customers, giving the “additional charge” and extra steps and clicks to authorize the tax transaction.
Axia Extends Market Footprint in GCC RegionGo to article >>
”As analysts have noted, Amazon offers the best prices with or without sales tax,” Ty Rogers, a spokesman for Amazon, stated.
Image courtesy of Flicker


text:
Potash Ridge Corp. has announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with GSFC Agro Tech Ltd (GATL) for the supply of 50 000 tpy of SOP offtake from its Blawn Mountain SOP project in Utah, US.
The CEO of Potash Ridge, Andrew Squires, said: “Executing an MoU for supply of 50 000 tpy SOP from a 100% subsidiary of a major Indian joint sector fertilizer company is a significant accomplishment for the company and a key stepping stone in the financing and development of the Blawn Mountain project. The company has been in negotiations with other SE Asia SOEs (State Owned Enterprises) since 3Q17 and anticipates closing additional offtake MoUs in the very near future with the intent of achieving offtake commitments for a majority portion of the initial 255 000 tpy of potassium sulphate (SOP) production capacity. The company will continue to provide updates as these discussions move forward.”
Read the article online at: https://www.worldfertilizer.com/potash/30042018/potash-ridge-signs-offtake-mou-with-gsfc-agro-tech/
Stamicarbon, the innovation and licensing company of Maire Tecnimont Group, is committed to a sustainable fertilizer industry, by investing amongst others in innovative digital solutions that turn real-time plant data into meaningful information by using Stamicarbon’s know-how to enhance insights and control and drive continuous optimisation. This webinar will cover the Stami-Digital Operator Training Simulator, the Stami-Digital Process Monitor and the Stami-Digital Optimizer.


text:
Apple announces its streaming and news service
By Matt Collins Article may include affiliate links
During a Monday, March 25, 2019, event, Apple announced its new premium streaming and news services.
- Named Apple TV+ and Apple News+, the two new services represent a high anticipated expansions by Apple.
- AppleTV+ will debut this fall and will featuring original programming available exclusively via the the Apple TV app.
- No pricing for Apple TV+ has been announced, though it is expected to be comparable to other streaming services.
- Apple News+, meanwhile, is available now and costs $9.99 a month.
- The service builds on the still free Apple News service, adding access to premium magazine, newspaper and digital content.
- Apple News appears to incorporate magazine content from Texture, a magazine app that Apple acquired in 2018. As of the announcement, Texture remains available as a standalone product, including apps for Apple, Amazon and Android devices.